Product Description

The War of the Ring board game is a grand strategic simulation of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy.

While the Fellowship of the Ring advances towards Mordor, the Dark Lord Sauron tries to find the location of the Ring-bearer, and unleashes his armies against the last strongholds of the Free Peoples.

Faithful to the epic flavor of the books, characters and strongholds play a major role in the flow of the game and represent the main focus of the action. A simple and fun, dice-based, resource management mechanism is used to determine the various types of action possible for each player. Smooth, original mechanics have been devised to handle the hidden movement of the Fellowship and the Hunt for the Ring.

This enormous game includes a gameboard depicting a large color map of Middle Earth; 200+ plastic figures representing the Armies and Characters of the War of the Ring, including the Nazgl, each member of the Fellowship of the Ring, Shadow Army units, Free People Army and Leader units and Minions of the Shadow; 135 die-cut cardboard counters; 100+ cards for Events and Characters; and over 20 dice!

Product Reviews

Is this game worth buying? Is there a reason not to buy
this game? How does this game rate compared to others by
complexity or time factor? I hope to answer these simple
questions at the end of my impression of War of the Ring.

First, I must state that I was very thrilled when I first
read about this game. I was very tired of the Risk-ee
hype eaters offered up by Hasbro gang. I am not knocking
these games, for in some ways they actually mimic each other
on a basic level that War of the Ring even uses. I think
for children, the "RiskRings" games
are a nice introduction to the genre of wargaming. I must
say however, I am not a very big fan of the Risk battle
system. I am therefore not a fan of all the games that use
this system either... and there are way too many. This
alone makes War of the Rings stand out among the competitors
(a new battle system).

War of the Rings, on its best note, gives the player a
real feeling of desperation from both sides of the fence.
For the Shadow, there is a constant clicking of the "Ring
Time Bomb" moving forward in an attempt to blow the top off
of Mount Doom. For the beleaguered people of Middle Earth,
there is a gut-wrenching feeling of the many many sacrifices
needed to get the fellowship to Mount Doom. And, somewhere
in between, there is the struggle which is the heart of War
of the Ring (the actual War).

The game requires one to commit resources to two
different goals. Win the War or Get/Destroy the Ring. It
is very hard to move one goal ahead without hindering the
other. Fortunately, the game mechanics can force a player to
go in a less predictable direction for better or worse.
Quite often the player controls the weighty decisions fully,
but on other occasions things can slip away (including
ringbearers, nazghuls and a future king).

Overall, the Shadow player drives forth like an
invincible juggernaut while the People of Middle Earth stand
like pins in a bowling alley. There is no one that can stop
the Shadow from his lofty targets. The Free People of
Middle Earth delay, fight and die. It would seem nothing
can stop the Shadow forces from winning the game except this
small tugging that grows stronger every step the Fellowship
moves to Mordor.

Beware to a Free People's player that stands up against
the forces of Sauron and Saruman on the battlefield. In
capable hands of a Shadow player, the forces of Evil will
make short work of very defiant large army.

Though both forces can get reinforcements from their
"pools", only the forces of Shadow get to put their recently
fallen back into their "pool" to be used once more. The
Free People have a finite pool for their forces, and once
that pool is empty, the country is exhausted with no hope of
maintaining a war of long attrition.

A player that plays War of the Ring will learn after a
few games that there are cards that can put the fear of
Gandalf back into the Shadow player. However, these
conditional cards can be weathered if the Shadow player
proceeds more cautiously.

In many games that I played, it seemed that the
Fellowship was an excellent bargaining chip for the Free
People in conducting a better positioned war. The
Fellowship's vicinity to victory dictates the strategy and
desperation of the Shadow's final moves. In essence, the
Fellowship's progress determines the level of risk that the
Shadow player must take. Sometimes the Shadow player will
make attacks that are not in his favor, but if he or she
doesn't make those attacks he or she will lose anyway. A
Felllowship in Mordor makes the Shadow player rush his game,
while a Fellowship still muddling in Lothlorien leaves the
Shadow player ample time to muster overwhelming forces.

Is this game worth buying?

You betcha, but it is for players who like wargames and
Lord of the Rings.

Is there a reason not to buy this game?

Despite what previous people have said about the plastic
miniatures, I found my first impression to be not so much in
love with them. Though they are detailed, the 3-4 colors
that these miniatures came as are not very helpful other
than telling the difference between bad guy color and good
guy color. I found it hard to look at, and I decided to
paint them all. After painting them (and the pneumonia that
I suffered from breathing that crap) I can fully say I am
floored by the excellent detail they have (which only
painting could bring out). I do recommend painting them,
but not to the detail that I did (if you do it yourself).
If you do want all the finery to show through, I would pay
someone else to do it if you make 60k or more a year. Why
that number? I figure that anyone who made less would save
money doing it themselves, and anyone who made more should
not suffer the damned lessons that I endured.

The game is a 3-4 hour wargame, but is easy to set up if
you have your minis painted. The length of the game is no
problem for me, and I do believe this isn't a problem for
most boardgamers.

If you don't have that kind of time... probably don't buy
it. If you are squeamish to spend so much time seeing that
the figures get painted (however you do it), I can firmly
say it is worth the cost. I figure 800 dollars is a fair
price to have these miniatures painted by a professional.
As I said before, if you can do it yourself, then you will
learn over time just how 800 dollars figures into my 60k
theory.

The Complexity of the Game?

In my opinion, this game has a lot of facets to know all
at once. These facets are all necessary to play the game.
Quickly after the first game, I found that I was doing very
little referencing. My idea of a complex game is one that
requires me to look at combat tables, random effects, range
of unit, provisional turns, etc. War of the Ring pretty
much has everything on the board. So, once you learn the
mechanics and rules, you are pretty much looking to the
rulebook for special case questions. Naturally, once all
those questions are answered, the games move faster each
time.

There is a learning game one can "quick play", but I find
that these quick play games have you learning a game
wrongly. When you have to play the real game finally, you
must throw out some of the quick play rules that you
learned. You basically developed some bad rules habits
(which you will confuse with the real game) in your haste to
play a half-baked version of the game you really want to
play.

Some games get unbelievable hype before they come
out, especially if they are about a popular
subject or theme. War of the Ring got more hype
than any game in recent memory. Playtesters
howled its praises; and once the game came out, it
slowly grew in popularity until it reached its
current spot of #3 on the top rated games at
BoardGameGeek, with over 100 people giving
it the perfect “10” rating. I was intrigued, not
just because I was a fan of the books and movies,
but because of the massive amount of plastic
pieces that came in the box. The game just exuded
the “cool” factor, and I was eager to get my hands
on a copy.

Now that I have a copy, I can state that the hype
was not unjustified. While not a “10”, I rate the
game a “9.5” as it’s near perfect. The theme is
evident throughout the game, and the designers
have managed to present us with a fair, balanced,
fun game. As of this writing, there are at least
fifteen reviews on the internet, so I’m not going
to focus on rules of this game (all twenty-three
pages of them). Instead, you can find out the
details of the game from another review - I’ll
just focus on my thoughts of the game...

1.) Miniatures: My, how Fantasy Flight Games just
keeps getting better. From no miniatures in
Twilight Imperium I, to the terrible plastic
miniatures in Twilight Imperium II, to the
marvelous, soft plastic miniatures in this game,
the amount of miniatures is staggering, rivaling
that of an Eagle game; and the detail on them is
very well done. If you head to the internet,
you’ll find tons of articles and pictures
detailing how to paint them. I’m afraid that my
skills are sorely lacking in this regard, but that
doesn’t sadden me; because even in their unpainted
form, the miniatures still look great on the
board. The game provides counters to use if the
miniatures crowd up too much room on the board,
but I’ve only used them in one situation; because
the miniatures provide such a wonderful visual of
how the game is progressing.

2.) Dice: I have found the dice system absolutely
incredible. From the dark side having an
overwhelming amount of dice, showing their sheer
physical dominance, to the makeup of the dice the
light side has more versatility but has a harder
time getting their armies to move. Having the
Dark side sacrifice a number of their dice to put
them in the “Hunt for the Ring” box is very
thematic. Yes, as Sauron you want that ring; but
if you waste too many resources chasing it, you
won’t put enough pressure on the good forces.
Meanwhile, the Light side must agonizingly decide
just how many dice to devote to moving the Ring
and how many to move those crucial companions.

3.) Companions and Minions: I seriously think
that in a game, the less experienced player should
play the Dark Side. This is because while the
evil player certainly has a lot of decisions to
make, they aren’t as difficult as the forces of
good. Hardest of these decisions are the
companions. Leaving a lot of companions with the
party means that the hobbits are less susceptible
to the ring and helps absorb damage from the dark
side. At the same time, keeping too many
companions allows the Shadow to send greater
hunting parties, and sending the companions away
from the party can crucially help the light side -
especially Gandalf and Strider, as they can
“morph” into their more powerful counterparts.
The extra dice they provide are SO crucial to the
Free People. Knowing where to send the companions
(should Gimli activate the dwarven nation?) is
crucial, but the choice to split them off from the
party is agonizing. This doesn’t belittle the
Evil Player’s choice of when to reveal the Witch
King. Sure, the guy is massively powerful, but he
activates all the good nations. Reveal him too
early, and you hurt yourself. Reveal him too
late, and he doesn’t do much good.

4.) Political System: This is another tremendous
mechanic. I really enjoy how the Dwarves and
northern armies are basically out of the game,
unless the Light player goes to extreme ends to
get them involved. The Shadow player has crucial
decisions in the beginning of the game. Does he
attack Gondor, Rohan, or both? It’s probably best
to only attack one nation, as the chance of the
Free People spending precious actions to get the
other in the war is fairly small. Yet unless
Gondor and Rohan unite, they will be eventually
swept away in a tide of Orcs. If the Shadow
player refrains from attacking too many players,
they can keep some of the nations out of war for a
good part of the game, tying up many crucial
units. At the same time, it would be useful if
the Free People could get the Elves into battle
quickly, in order to allow their strong forces to
stem the flood of evil. As the Free People
player, it can be frustrating (true to theme) that
they have so many pieces on the board yet can only
use a fraction of them. I love the thematic
flavor of this (even while complaining about it
during the game.)

5.) Chit Pool: More games should involve a chit
pool - Air Barons does it, as well as a few other
games, and it just makes things a little more
exciting than merely rolling the die. The fact
that each player can add tiles both helpful and
destructive to the pool makes the Hunt for the
Ring that much more interesting.

6.) Hunt for the Ring: This is a huge part of the
game, as the Free People’s only real viable
strategy is to get that ring into Mount Doom.
Sometimes the good guys can get so caught up in
defending their bases (and it really cannot be
ignored) that the ring can sit still; but it must
keep moving, or all is lost! The hidden movement
track is a unique mechanic that allows players to
not have to spend precious time tracking where the
hobbits are moving via pencil and paper. It also
allows the good guys to have a bit more leeway as
to where they send the hobbits. True to the book
- going over the mountains at the beginning is
easier but longer, while going through Moria is
quick and deadly. The Shadow player can divert
Nazgul to hunt for the ring; but their use in
battle is extreme, and shifting them away can
cause some of his battles to drag on longer than
they should.

7.) Cards: The cards allow the game to have more
thematic flavor than a simple war game would,
introducing elements like the Ents, Shelob, Tom
Bombadil, to the game, where miniatures for these
folk would have just gotten too cumbersome. The
card’s usage accurately reflects the theme of the
book, in my opinion, and playing the right card at
the right time can drastically effect the game.
The cards also have a dual-use, where players can
use them in battle. This causes a player to
choose between the usefulness of the card as an
event, or the help it would do them in battle. My
only complaint about the game actually comes from
the cards. A player who has played the game has a
leg up on those who haven’t, simply due to the
knowledge of what’s on the cards. For example, if
a Shadow player doesn’t know anything about the
Ent cards, they might leave Saruman undefended,
assuming that the Light forces are too weak to
break through. The Ent cards could then wipe out
Saruman, hurting the Dark player considerably. If
I’m the Shadow player, however, I know these cards
exist and will make sure that Saruman is NEVER
left undefended. This probably means that the
first game of any player is going to be a learning
game.

8.) Battles: The battle system, while
interesting, isn’t anything spectacular, but it
works. It allows for a maximum of five dice to be
rolled at a time, and the leaders play a powerful
role. At the same time, the siege system is much
more interesting. It allows the Free People to
hole up in a secure spot but forces them to just
sit there, taking hits until they are wiped out or
rescued (highly unlikely).

9.) Victory Conditions: The game is like a
complicated race. The Shadow is racing to destroy
as many Light Strongholds as they can, while the
Light side is struggling to get the Ring in Mount
Doom. The Light side military victory (while
non-thematic) is practically impossible, but they
must do their best with their forces to tie up the
Shadow player as long as possible. It’s all a
race with that accursed ring!

10.) Rules: The rulebook is very detailed and
long; but after a careful reading or two, the game
is fairly simple. At the same time, the game does
take a while to explain; even when I explained it
the third time to a group, it still took me twenty
to thirty minutes before they had a general idea
of what was going on. There are PILES of helpful
downloads on the internet; and I recommend finding
a good one, because you will find yourself
referencing it a lot. Everything on the board is
fairly clear; but some things like the symbols on
the tokens on the political track aren’t labeled,
and only a Tolkien fanatic would know what they
stood for.

11.) Artwork: A quick note on the artwork - it’s
beautiful and very true to the spirit of the
books. From the hefty box, to the rulebook, to
the huge game board, to the little tokens -
everything looks and feels Tolkien.

12.) Fun Factor and Time: The game is a LOT of
fun, especially if you’re a Tolkien fan. Games
come down to the wire; one of my games ended as
the hobbits teetered on the edge of Mount Doom
about to cast the ring in. The game is lengthy,
running three to four hours; but it’s an involving
game, and watching the events unfold is
interesting. The game follows the general path of
the book, but there’s enough deviation for the
replayability factor to be high. It’s a
tremendous two-player game (works well with four)
and satisfies even a war-game hater like me.

If you like Tolkien, light war games, or just good
games in general, then this is one for you. Yes,
it’s long and fairly complicated, but the
experiences it will provide are worth it. I know
it’s not for everyone; many folk who prefer light,
fluffy games will be overwhelmed by this heavy,
heavy game. Yet if you have any interest at all,
pick it up; it certainly will provide one with
enough fantasy war to last a long time. This, in
my opinion, is the definitive Lord of the Rings
game. Knizia’s is fun and interesting; but to get
the full experience of the books, look no further
- the superlative game has arrived.

I've played War of the Ring twice now, and I'll
add my thoughts to those contributed below.
First, this game can be played as a
multiplayer, but the simple truth is that it is
much better - and quicker - as a two player
game. Also, plan to spend the day with the
game the first time you play it, it will set you
back five to six hours. Having said that, the
second play clocked in right at three hours
and therefore I anticipate it being a 2 1/2 to 3
hour game for EXPERIENCED players, as
advertised. The mechanics are actually very
straightforward once you are used to them,
but there is a lot of dice rolling to be done and
players will often ponder a moment or two
before deciding their next action.

Concerning the game itself, there are so many
choices to make but they all fall into two basic
categories - moving the fellowship to Mordor
and the military battle for Middle Earth. The
designers did a fabulous job with this, a
player who neglects either will pay dearly if
their opponent senses the lack of balance.
For the Free Peoples, it is possible to win a
military victory by taking a few key strategic
sites (more likely earlier than later in the
game). But this is difficult to do if the Dark
Servants see this coming. Delivering the Ring
to Mordor appears to be (believe it or not) the
simpler of the two tasks. For the Dark
Servants military victory will be had, the
question is how long will it take before the
forces of good are overwhelmed. The Dark
Servants must also actively hunt for the ring,
for if they don't Frodo will be in Mordor before
the military campaigns have run long enough
to engulf the remaining Free armies. It is also
posible, though quite difficult, for the ring to
corrupt the ring-bearer (and the forces of
Sauron play a role in this) and thus claim a
victory for Sauron in this fashion, but the
military path is the more straightforward of
the two.

Sound like the books? The designers have
done a great job of matching the story to the
game. This game is similar to other card-
driven wargames, but delivering The Ring
adds an element and a strategy that
completetly separates it from other games.
And unlike other seemingly interminable
wargames (I love East Front for example, but
I do have a wife and two kids....), this game
can be completed in a long evening if two
players know what they are doing. As
mentioned before, if you are just starting out
with it try the game on a Saturday. If time is
an issue or you just want to get a feel for the
game opening the box on a weeknight will
work. Once you are beyond the learning
curve I think you will find it is an outstanding,
and quick for games of its type, two player
game. Highly recommended for wargamers,
not recommended for non-wargamers.